Distance Learning Resources

Hibernia College

Hibernia College follows an ambitious and forward-thinking strategy in order to play a leading role in education for the future. Two of the most popular courses on offer at the college are the Master in Primary Education and the  Professional Master of Education in Post Primary Education

Virtual classes are usually run as tutorials and webinars. Tutorials are small group sessions that usually involve 20-25 students and their tutor logged in simultaneously to the Blackboard Collaborate™ virtual classroom application. Designed specifically for education, Blackboard Collaborate™ allows students and tutors to talk to each other (and see each other if they have webcams activated), present slides, videos, images and other educational materials; write and draw on a whiteboard; conduct polls and quizzes; share applications and visit websites. To really get a good discussion going, students can also be split into smaller breakout groups to allow them to tease out issues in depth before reporting back to the larger tutorial group.

Webinars are similar to tutorials in that they involve everyone logging into Blackboard Collaborate™ at the same time, but the class size is usually much bigger and they are primarily used for delivering lecture style classes or for information sessions. Even in these much larger sessions, however, students have the opportunity of asking questions, either by speaking or by sending a note to their tutor.

All live sessions are accessible from desktop computers and mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad and Android devices. They are also recorded and made accessible to students for playback and revision purposes. So even if you can’t attend a tutorial, you won’t miss out.

Find out more at hiberniacollege.com